Pape'ete, Tahiti, Saturday

[lockestheway]

Thankfully, the visit to Tahiti was less fraught with potentially difficult negotiations with heads of state. Peter was greeted and accepted quite heartily, taken to a private diplomat's dinner upon arrival last night and then driven to his hotel

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[whenshewasnice]

That Girl was not at Homecoming. She'd considered it, briefly, but Jim visiting her for a couple of days had basically been all the Homecoming she needed. She'd visit Fandom at some other time.

And besides, Tahiti. It was pretty nice. Which was why Natalie - and yes, a bodyguard, largely for show - was taking a walk too, although she was more taking the occasional picture rather than answering emails. But she did send one message.

Found a place that does ice cream with proper Tahitian vanilla. I'll send you the coordinates if you want to join me.

[lockestheway]

Peter glanced up at his burly bodyguards. Eh, who cared what they thought anyway?

Sounds great. Let me and the big guys know. They look emaciated.

They looked unimpressed with Peter, is what they looked like.

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie figured as much. She sent the address to him, along with an, We'll be here, I'll save you a seat.

The place wasn't that packed, anyway, so keeping a table to herself wouldn't have been hard even if she hadn't been accompanied by a guard. But the ice cream was really good.

[lockestheway]

Peter made it there about ten minutes later, ducking his head in. "Oh, this is nice," he said, while privately making a mental note to check if they still had their establishment up to the health code. "Natalie. What a surprise."

[whenshewasnice]

"Fancy meeting you here," Natalie replied, raising her spoon in greeting in his general direction.

Time off meant getting to be a tiny bit more casual than she might have been otherwise.

[lockestheway]

Peter pulled up a chair and flopped down in it. "Long time no see," he added. "So, real vanilla, huh?" He looked up at one of his bodyguards. "You look like a vanilla kind of guy."

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie rolled her eyes like someone who thought he should maybe think of other ways to deal with is guards, but said nothing about that. "Real vanilla," she said instead. "Has a pretty rich taste."

Of course, her ice cream also had coconut and chunks of fresh pineapple because - well, just because.

[lockestheway]

"You mind getting me one of those?" Peter asked of the guard. "Feel free to order whatever you want. Unless that ruins your diet, or whatever."

The guard managed to refrain from eyerolling as he walked away.

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie did it for him.

"I'm surprised he hasn't pushed you into traffic yet."

[lockestheway]

"Oh, come on," Peter said. "It's a strenuous job. He's just happy I'm bringing some light into his life."

[whenshewasnice]

"I really doubt that."

This was her doubtful face.

[lockestheway]

"Don't give me that face."

[whenshewasnice]

"I will give you whatever face I want."

So there.

[lockestheway]

"Hey, remember I'm paying for that ice cream you're stuffing your face with," Peter said.

[whenshewasnice]

"I don't think that means I can't judge you," Natalie retorted. Like an adult. "I don't think I would've agreed to anything that would strip me of the right to judge you."

[lockestheway]

"You could at least try to take a little less joy out of it," Peter said, though he was in too good a mood to be genuinely grumpy.